The present invention relates to a valve operating mechanism in which a valve for controlling the passage of fluid such as liquid or gas is opened by applying a grasping force to radially displaceable members provided at a periphery of a body, and it is closed by removing the grasping force. More particularly, the invention relates to a valve operating mechanism which is widely applicable to a writing instrument such as a so-called "brush-like pen", a marker pen, a correcting liquid bottle and a technical pen, a makeup liquid applying instrument for application of manicure, eyeliner, mascara, etc. a household utensil such as a soy pot, sprayer, and detergent injector detachably connected to a sponge, and appliance using water such as a water supply tube, a sprinkler and a shower, and the like.
A variety of methods of controlling the flow of fluid have been developed for a number of articles, however, they each have problems to be solved as described below.
As to a writing instrument, there has been known a marker pen in which a piece of cotton or the like fitted in an ink tank of the pen in order to control of a supply amount of an ink. In such a type of the pen, an ink is impregnated in the piece of cotton and led to a tip of the pen by means of a capillarity of a pen core or an ink leading core formed of a felt or the like. Such a marker pen is disadvantageous in that an amount of the ink contained in the ink tank decreases due to a volume of the piece of cotton. Further, there has been known another writing instrument in which an ink is contained directly in the ink tank without providing a piece of cotton. Such a writing instrument utilizes a valve operating mechanism for controlling the supply amount of the ink. However, those writing instruments are still disadvantageous in the following points. In the case of the marker pen in which the pen core end is pushed, the pen core must be hard. If the pen core is soft, then its end may be collapsed, or it cannot be pushed. Moreover, such a writing instrument requires a mating member against which the tip end of the pen core is pushed.
In the case of the brush-like pen in which a body is made of flexible material, the ink may leak unexpectedly because it has no valve. Further, the brush-like pen in which the valve is opened by knocking the rear end is relatively intricate in construction and accordingly requires a large number of components. In addition, the brush-like pen would suffer from the difficulty that a large quantity of ink may flow out when the rear end is knocked. Furthermore, such a conventional pen may be inconvenience in that the writer has to change his grasping position whenever the ink is to be supplied to a tip end of the pen.
In one example of the makeup liquid applying instruments, the valve is opening by pushing the end. Accordingly, in the makeup liquid applying instrument, the end should be hard, however, the hard end is not practical in use of the makeup liquid applying instrument. Further, the end may be damaged.
In the case of household utensils, for instance a soy pot suffers from a difficulty that when it falls down, the soy sauce will flow out. Further, a detergent injector is still disadvantageous in that sometimes the sponge must be washed with detergent taken from a detergent container provided separately.
A sprinkler which is connected through a hose to a faucet, and has a valve which is manually operated (opened and closed) is well known in the art. One example of a conventional sprinkler of this type is a hand-held sprinkler in which a part which is moved back and forth while being rotated is provided in front of the sprinkler body. The part thus provided is moved axially while being rotated so as to open and close its valve. In such a hand-held sprinkler, the valve must be opened and closed with both hands. Therefore, it is troublesome to operate the sprinkler, and the water sprinkling operation must be suspended depending on the situation.
A pistol type sprinkler is also known in the art, in which its trigger is pulled with one or two fingers of the hand holding the sprinkler body or released to open or close the valve built in the pistol type sprinkler. This type of the conventional sprinklers are advantageous in that they can be operated with one hand, and the valve can be opened or closed relatively quickly. However, they are still disadvantageous in that they are intricate in construction and accordingly high in manufacturing cost, and they are bulky.
Moreover, the appliances using water also involve a problem that, in order to supply or sprinkle water, a special operation such as an operation of turning on and off a faucet must be carried out.